Moussa Carries Arab Rescue Plan to Beirut
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said on Sunday he will head to Beirut to discuss a plan adopted by Arab foreign ministers calling for the election of presidential candidate Gen. Michel Suleiman.
“There has been an agreement which I will present to the Lebanese parties for discussion during my visit,” Moussa told reporters at an early morning news conference, adding that he will go to Beirut “within two days.”
Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League held an extraordinary meeting on Saturday at the organization”s Cairo headquarters aimed at resolving Lebanon”s worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
“The ministers welcome favorably the consensus around Michel Suleiman as a candidate for the presidency and call for his immediate election in accordance with the constitution,” Moussa said, reading from a statement.
The Arab ministers agreed on a three-point plan, namely the election of a president, forming a government of national unity and the adoption of a new electoral law, Moussa said.
They called for “an immediate agreement on the formation of a national unity government” in Lebanon, constructed in such a way as to deny either faction the right to impose their policies on the other side, he said.
Under the plan, which aims to satisfy the demands of both the ruling coalition and the opposition, the new president would have the power to approve government decisions, he said.
Lebanon has been without a president since the mandate of pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud expired on November 23 amid sharp divisions between the Western-backed ruling majority and the opposition, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
The two camps have been at odds over how to amend the constitution to allow Suleiman, the current head of the army, to be elected president. They also disagree on the make-up of the future government.
A vote in parliament to elect a new head of state has been postponed 11 times, and the legislature is now due to meet again on January 12 in the latest attempt to do so.
Syria, represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and long seen as a divisive influence on its neighbor, backed the plan, Moussa said.